Take one part Faerie Solitaire and two parts Puzzle Quest and mix in a little Poker or Yahtzee for good measure and you will get something like Runespell: Overture.

You're a changeling of some sort and you fight monsters and take quests in exchange for coin and buffs (which come in the form of power-up cards). There's a story but it's not the strongest element in the game. Like the Puzzle Quest games, your battles are determined by playing a mini-game. Instead of match-3 though, the game is a card game similar to poker in which making certain combinations of cards (pairs, 5 of a kind, full house, flush, straight) will do a certain amount of damage to your opponent, who is trying to do the same to you. The ability to steal some cards from your opponent, plus the limited number of moves you get per turn to move cards or play power-ups adds just enough strategy to the game to keep it interesting.

Admittedly, the game can get a bit repetitive after a while and I found the dialogue options to be a bit tedious but fortunately the game allows you to skip them if you want. It's an easy game to learn, and it's an entertaining casual game to play. It seems to be pretty short and the achievements don't seem too difficult to collect if that's your thing.

Runespell: Overture melds together classic RPG components with Windows Live's player-vs-player solitaire with poker. I obtained Runespell for free in a pile of coal during the Steam Holiday Sale 2011 event. Receiving the game for free, I simply assumed that Runespell was merely a terrible, no-name title that was not worth playing. It was not until the Summer 2013 that I truly realized what I had come across.

Runespell sports a great soundtrack with honestly a decent storyline. Often times, card games that try to incorporate RPG elements (or just a storyline) end up drowning out the added components with the basic mechanics the card game - Runespell does not do this. If you are a cards-only enthusiast, this may stray a little too far from those roots; if you are an RPG-only enthusaist, this may feel more like a card game. However, if you are willing try a game that can have both, Runespell: Overture is for you.

Verdict: While Runespell: Overture is far from a lump of coal turned into a diamond, but it is definitely a gem. Simply put, Runespell is a fun, player-vs-computer, RPG, solitaire, poker game - and it is done very well. The game is so enjoyable that I honestly look forward to a remake or sequel that would incorporated online cooperative and competitive gameplay features. While it is definitely not worth $10, the current sale of $2 at the time of this review is definitely worth looking into. Here you will find a game that successfully feels like an RPG, while feeling like a card game.

The core concept of this game is essentially solitare poker againt the AI. Matching varying combinations of cards will inflict damage against the AI (and AI to you). The damage will increase the better the combiation, from two of a kind to a royal flush. The game mixes things up by adding in spell cards which can be used to inflict status effects, heal, do elemental damage, etc. The additions of the spell cards keeps the battle fresh as certain enemies require specific cards to counter their abilities. Overall, this game is average to above-average. I recommend a purchase of this game during a sale.

Runespell: Overture is a decent and enjoyable game. The story plays out as a fantasy adventure, your character being oblivious to his past and must do battles with numerous foes to advance, making allies and doing quests along the way.

The game play is somewhat unique, using a combination of battle and magic cards to attack your foe. One earns points by creating sets of 5 traditional cards (ace-king: hearts, spades, diamonds, clubs), using rules akin to poker, ie (pairs, 3 or 4 of a kind, straights, flushes, full house etc.). Better hands are worth more attack points (eg. full house > 2 pair). Cards are laid out in columns of which the top card can be taken to make a set, including your opponent's. Meaning strategy is important in order to create the best possible hands while trying to prevent the opponent from doing the same.

The game is simple to play once you know the rules, and can be a good way to spend half an hour or so. Battles can be hard at times but with perseverance the game is not too difficult to beat, I finished it with about 9 hours of game play. I would enjoy a sequel to continue the story as it did seem unfinished at the conclusion. At a discount price the game is worth a shot, if you like card and/or poker-like games. 6.5/10

If you like casual games and you like an RPG style twist, then this little game was executed very well. The concept of using a standard card game as a fighting system works very well actually. Solid little game, I like it quite well!

For options we have Graphics Quality (Fastest, Fast, Simple, Good, Beautiful, and Fantastic), Windowed or Fullscreen, Drag and Drop or Click and Click (when moving cards around), and Sounds (Music and SFX). You can also choose a screen resolution anywhere from 640x480 to 1920x1080.

The tutorial is very well-done, teaching you the ropes without being annoying.

So what kind of game is this? It looks like an RPG that you play with cards, but that's not it at all. The primary thrust is actually a solitaire game... It's battle-solitaire-poker with RPG elements! *evil grin* Whee~!

How does that work? Looking at the screenshots will help a bit. As you can see, we and our opponent are each dealt a set of cards, solitaire-style. Ours is on top, theirs is on the bottom. We need to create poker hands by grouping cards in sets of five. If you don't know the poker hands, no worries -- the game will show you what groupings are "legal" to play. Each "hand" will deliver a certain amount of damage, depending on the cards you've chosen. For instance, a pair of cards (the other three cards in the group would be non-related) will deliver less damage than a flush.

In each round, you have three moves, and then your opponent gets three moves.

But wait, there's more!

You can steal your opponent's cards, and vice versa! If you grab a card from his area (or the other way around,) the card underneath does NOT flip over until it becomes his turn, but whenever you clear a pile on your side, you can immediately have access to whatever card is next in the pile (assuming that it's still your turn.) You CAN'T grab more than a single card from each others' piles -- if something is stacked on the other side (grouped,) it's off-limits to you. You can of course move multiple, grouped cards around on your own side.

Here's an example of how it might work:

You already have three Kings grouped, and take a fourth King to add to the pile, then grab a King from your enemy's cards to make five-of-a-kind (yes, unlike real poker, you can have five of the same card.) You use your third turn to select the five kings and deal damage.

This is where the strategy comes in. Now that it's too late and you've used all of your turns, you see your adversary grab that Jack of Hearts from your cards to complete a Royal Flush! EEEK~!!

Here's what you could have done to prevent it and still get your five Kings:

Forget about your three Kings for right now, grab his king, and place it on your single King, making a pair. Grab the Jack of Hearts and put it on top of another card -- ANY other card! It's better if you can do something with it, of course, but the point is to keep that card AWAY from your opponent. Now you can do one of two things: Do something beneficial (like moving a card to help yourself and/or hurt his progress) or you can move the pair of Kings on top of the three-of-a-kind, and make your attack in an upcoming round.

But wait, there's more!

Along the way we earn (via battles) and find special-use cards that can do anything from give you extra moves before your turn is over to poisoning to shielding yourself, to adding to your hit points, and more! You can only have a certain number of cards with you at the time of each battle, and (most of) the cards have finite-uses. When they run out uses, you can use the money you earn to recharge the cards.

Be sure to SAVE before each battle! You can abandon your progress if you wish -- it's an option to exit or go back to the main menu without saving.

There a bit more to it than that, including a storyline, but I'll let you discover that for yourself. ;)

This game was a huge surprise to me -- I never expected it to be so fun and addictive! A definite thumbs-up from me!

Think Puzzle Quest, but instead of match 3 you play poker solitaire to fight your enemies.

It's fun if you're into this kind of thing. The story is cliched but well-written: I appreciate characters with a sense of cynicism. The art and sound are nice. Tutorials can be skipped when you replay the game.

Downsides: Mystic Box appears to fallen off the face of the earth. Technical settings do not save when you quit the game; I constantly have to hit Alt+Enter to resize my window and re-pick "click and click" (dragging is a pain) when the game starts up

Overall, I enjoy this game. I use this game to kill time or relax: it's not as mindless as a match 3 and it's a fun twist on the premise. I don't expect it to do much more than that.

Runespell is a combination of RPG, Solitaire and Poker, similar in nature to Puzzle Quest. You stack cards like in solitaire to form 5 card poker combos to attack your foes and cast spells. It's fairly simple to play an so is the presentation. The story is based on Norse Mythology and while it's somewhat thin it does has its twists and turns. I found the gameplay enjoyable for the most part and the game doesn't overstay its welcome. Unfortunately, as the Overture in the title says it feels like a first part of something bigger, a second game that may never come out. That didn't upset me but can frustrate some people who got more invested in the story.

I got this as part of a bundle and really tried to make it work for me, but it was hard to escape the 'solitare with animations' feeling I got from the game. I'm sure a greater enthusiast for card games will find something they like in here, but I could not recommend it to a general audience.

This was a fun and reasonably easy game to master. The mythic poker system is more of a cross between solitaire and poker. The layout is solitaire, but the building of hands is very much poker. Royal Flush has the most value at 50 attack points. I like the way your runespells charge by both dealing damage and receiving it from enemy attacks. The story was reasonably engaging for what it was, and they left room for DLC or a sequel. All in all, a good way to kill 8 or 10 hours. On a scale of 1-10, I would give it a 7 for fun, but an 8 or 9 as far as games you can play to kill time whne you are bored.Online play would be a natural evolution for this game. I hope they are considering the development of PvP matches.

Love this card game, use poker hands to defeat your enemys, with plenty of spell cards and allies to aid you when things get difficult. Most enemies are easy to start off and you think its a walk in the park but it soon cranks up the difficulty later on and you have to really think ahead and put good hands together to win. If you like card games then this is worth a shot.

The recommendation is pretty weak because I didn't actually like the game. I think it has the potential to be enjoyable and it is fairly unique, so that alone might be worth it to you.

This game is essentially puzzle quest but with a solitaire combat system instead of matching gems. It's not fast by any means. Essentially you build poker hands to charge attacks, then launch the attacks at your opponent. Essentially you spend the entire game moving stacks of cards on top of each other to make a combo of five, and the higher the combo on the damage scale, the more the attack will do. You can also 'steal' cards from your enemies so long as they aren't stacked.

The combat is cool once or twice, but after that it becomes so repetitive. Nearly every fight is identical, save for the select few where you need to charge and use special attacks to win.

Beyond the gameplay, the music, sound effects, story and graphics are all ok. They're mediocre, they're fine, they're acceptable. Without a doubt they are not great and won't sell the game, but they sustain it without detracting.

All around, that describes the experience: alright, ok, passable. It's not thrilling or revolutionary, but it is unique and if that's what you're looking for in a game then you'll find it here.

Runespell: Overture combines some of the more bare-bones RPG elements (character upgrades, spells, quests) with a combat system that uses a weird blend of poker and solitaire to damage enemies. Sound odd? It is, but since I like cards and RPGs I enjoyed it. The overall gameplay, unfortunately, seemed a little too superficial for me to give it a higher recommendation; I didn't feel like I had much to do with building my character, and since the game is most definitively on-rails that was disappointing. If you dislike the levelling feature of traditional JRPGs this might be more up your alley.